Why Disney's Quirky Heroes Don't Work Anymore

Speaking of Raya, I love how dark that movie is, especially for a modern disney princess movie. I mean, sure it is a flawed movie, and admittedly I'm a bit biased since I'm from Indonesia (the movie based on SEA) but man it was so much fun.

The main character, Raya, is definitely the highlight of the movie for me. She went from a little girl who just wants to play like any other little kids, to a young adult that has trust issue and prefer to do everything by herself and her pet.

And that final battle was beautifully well animated and choreographed. And man, she really wants to kill Namaari. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's the first disney princess that's actively trying to kill her enemy, or at least in the final act. So seeing that here is really crazy and cool.

The final act of her going from having trust issue to having trust in other people again can be a bit rough, especially to some people, for how fast it was, but I like it.

Sure that we can't just blindly trust everyone, that'd definitely do bad to you. But if you want to unite to make a better world you can't just completely push everyone else just because you don't trust them. But also if other people have given their trust to you, then you shouldn't just act like it's just a trivial thing that you can break, say "sorry", and expect them to always say "it's fine" whenever you do it.

But yeah, overall I enjoyed the movie and I love Raya. I'd love to see a bit more darker princess movie again from disney with the main character not being a quirky adorkable girl. But that's probably not gonna happen.

I want a character that is scarred, yk? One that’s sarcastic, rude, but a big sofite underneath. I want some new character personalities.

I honesly think the problems reside in Disney's executives pushing their money strategy and tossing artists aside. Disney has amazing artist who could bring inspiring and diverse story, but executives shaves down their stories to make it as "likeable to everyone, not risky and easily marketable". Stop giving control of stories to people who knows nothing about how to build a proper one.

When you see Rapunzel there and you take it as a personal offense.

Anna will always be my favourite

for me, Sisu seems to take the 'quirky' role in Raya and the Last Dragon. Raya was predominantly focused and driven to achieve her goal (somewhat like Moana, who is also on a journey to save her people). Sisu keeps making quips which I guess could stem from her insecurity/guilt as the last remaining dragon (after the other dragons sacrificed themselves) and/or how several hundred years have passed before she was summoned back into existence

I'm surprised Wreck-it-Ralph isn't mentioned.

I feel like for Mirabelle, a large amount of her quirky personality, does actually make sense in the story. She’s the only one who doesn’t have a magical gift, so she basically over-compensates by being super bubbly and fun. Sort of in hopes that that will make her interesting enough that the village people won’t care that she doesn’t have magic. And she becomes more serious as the movie goes on because her being liked becomes so much less important to her.

It's overdone and boring. It's weird how both the antagonists and protagonists in Disney always have exaggerated, cheerful personalities. I miss the days when Disney had more realistic heroes and villains, not this weird crap that they've been releasing for the past 10 years.

Everyone wants the super sarcastic character but I kinda want the super feminine pink wearing character who is also intelligent and brave...it will never happen but at least theres Elle Woods

Rapunzel (and I guess Mirabel) are the only "quirky" Disney characters I like. For Raps it made sense and for Mirabel...im probably biased.

Argument: Stitch is Lilo's inner self.

I'd love to point out the fact that Anna's character had actual sense in the first movie, but in the second was so much more stereotyped and it felt forced: for example in the scene where she and Elsa are still kids and the mother tells them the story of atohallan. At the beginning of the scene she blurts out: "you know im not THAT patient" or smth. IT FEELS SO FORCED!! Like thanks for telling us directly that she has no patience and she is adorable and for that we need to love her, we knew already!!! This is coming from a big fan of Frozen where everything wasn't actually spoonfed - nevertheless i still like the second one for many other reasons, like Elsa's development.

I think there’s been too much of an emphasis on making these Disney ‘Princesses’ less remarkable so they can be more ‘relatable’. Problem is that most people aren’t “quirky” and find those types of people childish and annoying these days. It’s swinging back to how people felt in 90s, when everything was a bit grunge and down to earth 😅

Facts! I love Rapunzel. Her being quirky made perfect sense like you said. In addition, I liked Frozen. But....I wasn't all too invested in certain characters. I liked Elsa more over Anna. Even though Anna is "quirky" she came off more as annoying and dumb. Elsa was the princess I ultimately cared about and what got me through the film. I miss old Disney creating interesting characters (good or bad) and not having to be relatable. I don't want to be reminded of myself when watching a film. So far, the recent MC characters have just been either annoying or changed for the worse......like in Toy Story.....

This is what I have noticed, and this is strictly my own opinion. Disney finds something that works, and milks it for all it's worth. Quirky-adorkable princess? Gotta do more of them! Surprise twist villain? Yeah, gotta do that for several movies now! Seriously, this kind of thing gets old fast. Seriously, I haven't enjoyed Disney animated movies lately. I haven't really been interested in seeing them, because they just don't appeal to me.

You know what we don't get to see very often? Scaredy cat protagonists. I would love to see a hero who tries to save the world while being scared to death about everyone and everything, and still trying as hard as they can for their friends or beliefs.

Frozen 2 hit the uncanny valley so hard imo. It looks so gross in 4k it just creeps me out bad lol

Every Disney movie feels identical now with some different set dressings, they have perfected the formula to make a marketable movie with adorkable princesses and MCU dialouge, because that makes money. It makes it feel pointless to even go check out their movies now, I know I have seen it before.

It's like Disney doesn't realize that there are other ways to be quirky than just "adorkable." Can we have a male protagonist again? What about an introverted protagonist that slowly comes out of their shell by the end?

You didn't need to make me cry this hard about Lilo and Stitch

I think its gonna work out the failing of wish will make a new wave of new personality type as long as they dont manipulate it like the way they did for rapunzel like every princess is a copy of rapunzel having huge eyes cute personality and all that and i can say rapunzel is the best version of a modern disney princess she is good i do think they should explore more depressed characters and show their growth in being a better person and love themself something that asha really fit in

we need more characters like Mulan, she was so badass and such an awesome character, we need princesses that kids can look at and go "I wanna be like her when I grow up" instead of just laughing at how quirky and weird they are

Rapunzel definitely worked

I feel like at least with rapunzel it’s understandable because her quirkiness highlights her naivety which is a big role in the story, but Asha is just cringe

Me I love Asha, and mostly Rapunzel as Disney 3D Princesses, but i hate Anna : childish (sorry but i prefer Elsa rather that stupid sister) here why : I felt sorry for Elsa. For in the first movie, Elsa didn't mean to hit her, for it was Anna who is not very careful. But, unfortunately, Elsa gets the blame from their father! To make things even more worst, he locks Elsa in her room for years!


I was expected for Anna and Elsa to reconciled during the party, and for Anna to help Elsa, but nope, Anna has pushed Elsa down by trying to marry to a man she barely knows. To make things even more worse, she took Elsa's glove off, and Elsa reveals her ice powers, shocking everybody, including Anna. (Congratulations, Anna!) So that is the main flaws about her and their father!


I also don't like her in the sequel, as she want to protect Elsa, when in fact Elsa is trying to protect Anna! On the Ice canoe, she and Olaf agree about Elsa pushing them away! But Elsa just wants to protect them! The only thing I like about Anna is that when she becomes Queen and becomes mature.


But I still don't like the way Anna abused Elsa!

P.S. I found Olaf annoying.

Something else I find utterly tiresome about animated Disney movies is the extreme, singular focus on the heroine main character; when was the last time a Disney movie had a guy as the main hero? Especially nowadays, with the live-action "adaptations" making what male characters did exist less relevant (as depicted best in The Little Mermaid movie, where Prince Eric is no longer the one to impale Ursula with the ship; instead, the race-swapped/brownwashed Ariel does it).

Disney holds no attraction to male viewers, with its singular focus on girls, whereas other animation studios (such as Pixar and Universal) do, thanks to them having heroes alongside heroines.
Why would I ever watch Tangled, Frozen, or this movie when I could watch Shrek or WALL-E or Toy Story or Up? The only Disney movie that would appeal to a male audience would be The Lion King, that I can think of, as it's practically the only one to have a hero protagonist.

Honestly I think it worked with Anna originally only because she had poor traumatized Elsa as a foil. I do think it worked in Encanto as well, because she seemed genuine and, again, had other strong female characters that felt fully developed as foils.

In frozen 2 anna became paranoid and really attached to her sister and was often frustrated or sad in most of the movie which really shows how the trauma she experienced affected her
And it was sad to see anna curl up in a dark cave, depressed and holding the dead body parts of her friend because so much just happened and she's tired

Rapunzel has 0 social interaction with the world
And yearns for the beauty of the real world
She's also been manipulated her whole life
And the character personality fits that type of plot tangled has

Mirabel's whole happy giddy quirky like personality is just a common cover up or distraction on how she's nothing special in a family of amazing people
So she does this "i can do this, i can do anything even without magic"
And yeh you would meet many people like that irl

Asha is nothing
She's boring
She has no reason to be this
And her quirk isnt written right nor shown as something likeable
But rather she's just this quirky character that has the common exaggeration trait
I dont mind quirky characters but i hate how over exaggerated it is and it just reminds me of a child roleplaying
Or those tiktok videos of ppl purposely acting quirky as a cringe content
Asha character wasnt even explored in the film
What do we know about her
Well not allot cuz theres nothing else to know about her
I cant even feel bad for her dead dad because all i got is just small parts of them being together
And it's not even her dead dad being the reason on her quickness
Asha isnt adorkable she had a cringe personality that wasn't even written right
She was annoying to watch
Nothing about her is interesting
And the plot isnt even close to good
The villain isnt even villain
The villains goal is reasonable
Like it's actually reasonable and many people would do it
And because of that asha being there and just upset because everyone's wishes doesnt get granted
Well thats very childish and small minded

It’s a shame that this is the 100 anniversary movie. Like there can only be ONE 100 anniversary movie and this is the one they got. Walt would be disappointed.

I don't like princess and the frog you want to see Tiana face in the beginning in the are the whole damn movie she's a frog it's like Disney calling black people frog

"of this once great company"
salt to the burn😂

When I saw Asha, I was thinking her to be a soft spoken, shy girl who had to take on a big quest. You know, something to break her out of the shell.

But nope...same ol' over used character trait. It works for some princesses, but not per movie. Sheesh.

This all comes to Disney not having the balls so make complex female characters and relying on these characters being "quirky" to add flaws that aren't actually flaws.

Think about the great majority of Disney female characters and you'll see they all have some "flaws" that aren't really bad. She is too kind, she is too gentle, she is too hard working, she is too clumsy, she is naive, she is too innocent, she is too silly. These aren't really flaws, it's just stuff that Disney puts to pretend their princesses are complex and this "quirky girl" formula is what they stick to right now because it sells, but it's SO boring.

Why can't we have for once an egotistic jerk as the female protagonist who then learns to become a better person? Pixar did it with Merida from Brave and she is much more complex than these generic Disney protagonists.
Megara from Hercules was such a GOOD character. She was a good person, but also sarcastic, pessimistic and she did hurt the protagonist. Elsa too was at least something different. I'm so tired of perfect female characters who are so quirky and lovable, it's not even a good representation for teens who are famous for being moody, edgy and prone to anger

We need more Megara’s!

All this might be true, i don't care. I hate Disney for political reasons, and i wouldn't pay for their stuff no matter what. That their movies lately sucks helps, but it is not my main reason. I WANT them to go bankrupt.

Anna kind of stopped being “quirky” in frozen 2, so…

Idk why but the lighting for wish looks kinda flat. It looks like I’m watching an unfinished previz

Being quirky ISN't a good trait. It's annyoing in general.

Mirabelle shows that it still works. Ain‘t no one doing it better.

How many times did you say “very”? In this “very” video….how many time did you say it?

Asha isn't a protagonist. She's the villain of the story - King Magnifico is the hero.

Raps was OG you cant change that disney 💀

First time I've seen a video from you! Great job, well laid out 👏

You don't capitalize OFF something, you capitalize ON it. Prepositions have actual meanings and aren't interchangeable.

Nah. It didn't work for Wish because Wish was a shit film. If they made a Tangled 2 with a good story then it would work just fine.

It's like everything is f****g quirky in particular mainstream genres. There's very little sincerity; or at least the audience isn't trusted to deal with sincere emotions until the predictable 3rd act schmaltz. That's purely something wrong with writers today. I'm a misanthrope and a cynic, but there's a time and a place for it 😅😂

tip: you use filler words like "actually" too much and cutting it down in the video would elevate the content.

My daughter thought the Wish protagonist is Isabella Madrigal from Encanto but with Mirabel's character. Which made her very un-unique.... and forgettable.

The target market (my daughter) just kindda "moved on" after watching, unless after watching Frozen, Rapunzel or even Encanto~

The Adorkable main character trope peaked with Rapunzel imo